The invention relates to a bookbinding machine of the type having an inner-book transporting system, with a conveyer and a multiplicity of clamps, at points of articulation of the conveyer means, for clamping-in stacks of leaves, which clamps are disposed at equal mutual distances from one another and so as to be movable, drivewise, on the conveyer means and are guided in tracks on a machine frame, having an entry and an exit and having a number of processing stations along rectilinear conveyer paths.
A bookbinding machine of this constructional type, a so called adhesive binder, serves to manufacture adhesively bound soft covers or inner books for hard covers, collated leaves or folded sheets being connected to an inner book or inner soft cover by applying an adhesive to the inner-book backs which have previously been processed. During the processing of the backs, the back margin of the folded sheets collated to form an inner book or inner soft cover is completely destroyed. If the functional unit for back processing is not inserted, the subsequent functions can also be used for other binding processes. The binding processes which are possible and the product variants are dependent upon the equipment of the machine. This encompasses the following functional units: inner-book transporting system, back-processing, back-gluing, intermediate drying, page-gluing, back-reinforcement, jacket-applying, pressing-on of jackets and drying.
Some of these functional units may either be absent from the bookbinding machine or else be present several times over. In the case of some functional units, alternative possibilities as regards embodiment exist.
This possibility of combining units results in a considerable diversity of variants and types in various output ranges from 3000 to 18000 cycles or phrases per hour.
From German Patent Specification DE 28 10 518, a bookbinding machine is known which has a machine frame which is formed from the two terminal frame units and various intermediate units which are assembled by means of clamping bars and clamping elements. The number of intermediate units to be connected to the two terminal frame units and also the number of clamps holding the stacks of leaves can be varied in a manner corresponding to the particular format of the stacks of leaves to be bound. The clamps form part of the conveyer means in the form of a continuous chain and the distance of the clamps from one another can be varied by changing the number of chain links between the clamps in a manner corresponding to the format of the leaves. The bookbinding machine permits construction from standardized components and is to be capable of being re-equipped in a relatively rapid and simple manner for the purpose of conveying and processing stacks of leaves having leaf formats of different sizes.
The primary object of the present invention consists in providing a bookbinding machine of the general type described in the Background, which can be manufactured more economically and thus cost effectively and which permits high functional flexibility and economically optimum adaptation to the various requirements and also diversity of variants.
The object is achieved, according to a first aspect of the invention, through the fact that the machine frame has, in the region of the processing stations, a path section in a length corresponding to a grid arrangement with a defined basic dimension, and processing stations in the form of functional modules are provided in a breadth corresponding to the grid arrangement, which processing stations can be inserted at different places in the path section in a manner corresponding to the grid arrangement and can be interchanged with one another.
Starting out from an inner-book transporting system, consisting of a conveyer means running around deflecting chain wheels and having individual links that engage movably in one another, and of a multiplicity of clamps which are disposed at equal mutual distances from one another and so as to be movable, drive-wise, at the points of articulation of the links of the conveyer means, the bookbinding machine according to a second aspect of the invention is characterized by a conveyer means which is guided in a machine frame of a fixed length, measured between the points of deflection, and which has a defined total number of chain links with a defined chain pitch, and by interchangeable clamps for at least two different maximum format lengths of the stacks of leaves, the product of the number of chain links, in each case, per clamp and phase interval and of the number of clamps being always the same total number of chain links.
Through the invention, the diversity of types of adhesive binders and the associated constant outlay in respect of design and of control technology can be eliminated, while retaining the called-for diversity of variants of equipment. The processing stations, and also alternative embodiments of processing stations, can be interchanged with one another. This independence of the place of installation is provided without any co-ordination of the basic machine and the processing station, design-wise. The use of standardized structural components for recurring functions reduces the diversity of parts and thus leads to a considerable reduction in costs. Customer-specific variants of configuration can be achieved without additional outlay in respect of design and production.
Clamps for various formats of stacks of leaves can be inserted without changing the basic frame or the running tracks for the clamps. As a result of this, the number of clamps can be varied, so that, on the one hand, a higher production capacity is achieved, with the same running-over speed, via processing stations which are independent of format, and on the other hand, the running-over speed is reduced with the same production capacity, something which is useful, for example for achieving a better drying result.
In addition, the number and nature of the processing stations can be further varied, in a manner corresponding to the circumstances of use of the bookbinding machine, by prolonging the basic frame of the machine by inserting intermediate pieces coordinated with the grid arrangement.